Results for “markets in everything” 1803 found
Monopoly markets in everything, negative interest rate edition
That’s Monopoly the board game. Here is the latest:
We may be used to paying for goods at the touch of a card or phone in shops, but now quick and easy electronic payments are making their way to the Monopoly board too.
The Monopoly Ultimate Edition replaces fake notes with an ATM and every part of the game is ‘swipe-able or scan-able’, to bring the board game into the 21st century.
The battery-operated system is designed to speed up the process of making payments to other ruthless players, as well as cut down on cheating.
By the way, there is no great stagnation:
It is not the first time Hasbro has launched an electronic edition of the iconic board game, with two previous versions on sale.
But reviews criticised the firm for slowing the game down, in part due to players having to manually enter sums of money on a fiddly ATM keypad.
The Ultimate Banking Edition will cost $25 (£29.99) when it goes on sale in the autumn.
The full story is here, via the excellent Mark Thorson.
Cruise Conspira-Sea markets in everything
Say you’re not one to believe the mainstream media. Maybe you think climate change is an elaborate hoax or the medical community is trying to hide the myriad dangers of vaccinations. Perhaps you are utterly convinced the government is overrun by reptilian beings.
Where on Earth can you go to get away from it all, and mingle with those who share your views? Well, Conspira-Sea, of course. It’s a seven-day cruise where fringe thinkers can discuss everything from crop circles to mind control on the open sea. Last month’s cruise featured a caravan of stars from a surprisingly vast galaxy of skeptics and conspiracy theorists, including Andrew Wakefield, known for his questionable research and advocacy against vaccines. Also aboard was Sean David Morton, who faced federal charges of lying to investors about using psychic powers to predict the stock market.
Is this not what Tiebout equilibria are for? Best of all, the cruise gets these people away from the rest of us, for the most part.
There is more here, sad and silly throughout, via Michael Rosenwald.
Addendum: Here are the blog posts of, Colin McRoberts, the journalist who attended.
McMindfulness markets in everything
McMindfulness is the commodified, marketised and reductionist version of mindfulness practice which consists in the construction of courses, “apps”, books, and other items for sale to the public.
There is more here, via the excellent Mark Thorson.
Markets in everything
From my email Inbox:
Greetings T. Cowen,
I’m L. Ron Gardner and I’ve just published a mind-blowing novel/libertarian manifesto — Kill Jesus: The Shocking Return of the Chosen One — that you might want to review at your site. It is about Jesus reincarnating and attempting to end the Fed, which his father controls. The book, which has been described as “Atlas Shrugged on ‘roids,” is available at Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Filipino doughnut markets in everything
The Filipino restaurant Manila Social Club, in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, just made a splash with a confectionary creation that makes people crazy: a shiny, $100 doughnut covered in 24-carat gold.
There is more from the WSJ here, via Samir Varma. If nothing else, it makes the other prices on the menu seem reasonable…
Here is another account.
State-contingent markets in everything
Someone is betting $40,026 on the life of a 73-year-old lottery winner in Michigan.
That amount was the highest bid Thursday in an online auction for a lottery prize that pays $1,000 a month, before taxes. But here’s the hitch: The money is paid only as long as Donald Magett stays alive.
The Portage man won the “Cash for Life” game back in 1984, although the winnings lately have been going to bankruptcy trustee Tom Richardson to pay Magett’s debts.
Richardson auctioned the lottery prize — the last main asset — in an effort to close the bankruptcy case. The auction house, repocast.com, said the top bid was $40,026. At that price, Magett would need to live a few more years for the winner to at least break even.
The winner soon will get the first annual payment of $12,000.
Richardson said he doesn’t know the details about Magett’s health.
“All I know is his lawyer tells me his health is good,” Richardson said.
According to the Social Security Administration, a 73-year-old man can be expected to live another 13 years.
The story is here, via Mohamed Rayman.
Book markets in everything, even free internet content
Reddit is collecting some of its best Ask Me Anything interviews — with Bill Gates, Waffle House workers, Spike Lee, nuclear missile operators — in a “beautiful coffee table book.” It’s 400 pages. It’s $35. (Yes, there’s an e-book version, too.)
That is from Michael Rosenwald.
Avant-garde candy markets in everything
“Everybody is always like Wonka this, Wonka that, but I just never relate,” said Maayan Zilberman, a lingerie savant turned conceptual confectioner and the creator of Sweet Saba, an avant-garde candy company.
…Behind her was a container of candy rings that resemble men’s sex toys, made with edible gold and pectin. Ms. Zilberman had prepared them initially for a baby shower. “It was for the parents’ friends, not the baby,” she said. Much to her amusement, the $10 rings are often misidentified as doll bracelets by young customers. “They’re some of my best sellers.”
There are also candies that look like gold Rolexes but taste like Champagne ($10), eucalyptus-flavored Q-tips ($8 for six) and pencils that taste like grass ($12 for four). Ms. Zilberman worked with a food technologist to develop about 30 flavors, which include bubble gum, bacon, whiskey and mother’s milk.
“It’s mostly just cream,” Ms. Zilberman said of the last one.
Here is the Joshua David Stein NYT piece. Here is Zilberman’s Instagram page, try this photo of the candy.
Artisanal funeral markets in everything
With an increasing demand among baby boomers for customized funerals that reflect the individuality of the deceased, funeral directors are expanding into the business of event production. Today’s funeral director might stage a memorial service featuring the release of butterflies at the grave site, or with the deceased’s Harley parked ceremonially at the entrance to the chapel. In such instances, the skills of a funeral director can seem to fall somewhere between those of a nurse and a wedding planner. Mortuary Management, a trade magazine, offers articles about such innovations as the tribute blanket—an instant heirloom that incorporates photographs of the deceased into a custom-made tapestry—and urges funeral directors to be open-minded when faced with families who want pop songs played at a service. It’s a profitable strategy to, as a feeble witticism of the industry has it, “put the fun back into funerals.”
There is more from here from Rebecca Mead. I liked this exchange too:
“Who is going to follow a funeral home’s Twitter account, really?” one participant asked.
“Weirdos,” someone replied.
“Competitors,” added another.
Interesting throughout, as they say.
Markets in everything, tangled and untangled
Many knitters find their craft a tranquil and even meditative pastime—until knots and tangles in their yarn send them into a fury. But for one group of fanatics, there is nothing more satisfying than a hopelessly tangled web.
Daphne Basnet of Melbourne, Australia, once paid about $50 on eBay for a 25-pound box of snarled yarn, simply for the pleasure of untangling it. “I was so happy, I can’t tell you,” recalls the 58-year-old of her purchase, a mess of about 120 knotted balls.
…Finding such tangled treats got easier when Ms. Basnet joined Knot a Problem, a seven-year-old group of more than 2,100 “detanglers” on the online community for knitters and crocheters called Ravelry. Frustrated yarn-lovers from around the world post pleas for help undoing their knottiest knots, often created by children, pets or yarn-winding mishaps.
Devoted detanglers typically offer to take on the projects for the cost of shipping. Competition for the most maddening messes can be fierce. Some members check the group every day.
“People will jump in and say, ‘Send it to me!’ ” says Mary Enright, 56, a detangler from Sioux Falls, S.D.
Some of you may be saying “OK…” but I am more along the lines of “who am I to judge?” And there is this:
Group members like to post before-and-after photos of what they call “tangle porn.” Heaps of yarn resembling bowls of spaghetti become neat balls and cakes. “I think it’s fulfilling for people when they see what it was, sort of like house remodeling,” says Ms. Rothschild. “You see how crappy it was and how beautiful it turned out to be.”
And if you are looking for further signs of dedication:
About a dozen hard-core members celebrated by sending each other yarn to untangle, knotting up new skeins themselves if they had to.
For the pointer to the article I thank Peter Metrinko.
Markets in everything there is no great media stagnation
Netflix has built socks that read your body to understand when you fall asleep, and then automatically pause your Netflix show.
There is more here, via the excellent Samir Varma.
Sentences to ponder under-discussed markets in everything
Kenya Hathaway, a musician and vocal coach for television shows, has never talked with her husband about celebrity nannies, even in light of the unraveling marriages of the Afflecks and Rossdales.
There is more here, via the sharp-eyed Felix Salmon. The NYT article is interesting throughout, with many good bits.
Middle eastern barter markets in everything
Against Salafist jihadis in Sinai, as well as Hamas in Gaza, Egypt and Israel are working together more closely than at any time since the peace treaty was signed. In many respects Egypt and Israel now consider themselves to be closer allies to each other than each is to the United States. Jordan recognises that Israel is a guarantor of its security, the regional power most likely to intervene on its behalf should it face a serious threat.
That is from Nathan Thrall at LRB.
Cargo cruise markets in everything
In recent years, big cruise operators such as Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Star Cruises have spent heavily on soaring atriums, sushi bars, cabaret shows, and on-deck water slides to woo vacationers. Don’t tell that to John McGuffick, who’s spent months at a time at sea on cargo vessels—happily ensconced in quarters more suited to a Trappist monk than a Caribbean cruiser.
“The food can be pretty ordinary, and you have to be prepared to go with the flow,” says the 72-year-old retired farmer from Australia whose 10 trips via ocean freighter have taken him to dozens of ports across Asia, Europe, and North America. His personal maritime endurance record: 110 days nonstop from Dunkirk, in northern France, to Singapore. Explains McGuffick: “I like the solitude.”
Shipping companies like the dollars passengers such as McGuffick can bring aboard. In a slowing global economy, freight prices have fallen so far that hauling a person from Shanghai to Rotterdam brings in at least 10 times more revenue than a 20-foot container full of flat-packed furniture.
It’s not luxurious and not exactly cheap: About $115 a day secures travelers a bed and three meals on some of the largest vessels ever built. The handful of paying passengers—ships typically take no more than a dozen at a time—dine with the crew, have the run of most of the ship, and can chat up the captain on the bridge or engineers below deck.
The story is here, and I thank Stu Harty for the pointer. But beware: you have to wash your own clothes, and your window view might be blocked by shipping containers.
Marxian markets in everything, cemetery edition
On a summer visit to the grave of Karl Marx, Ben Gliniecki found that he would have to pay £4, or about $6, to pay respects to the man who sounded the death knell for private property.
Mr. Gliniecki, a Marxist, said no.
“Personally, I think it is disgusting,” the 24-year-old political activist said. “There are no depths of irony, or bad taste, to which capitalists won’t sink if they think they can make money out of it.”
The charity that looks after this cemetery has long taken swipe at a different irony: Karl Marx’s decision to buy a burial plot in a private London graveyard over the then state-provided alternatives. They say their cover fee subsidizes the upkeep of a cemetery where 170,000 other people rest.
And note this:
The German philosopher…once predicted the “hot tears of noble people” would be shed over his ashes…
The WSJ article is here, via Vic Sarjoo.